1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to direct printing of a file of a certain description language, such as PDF file, and in particular, it relates to a method and apparatus for direct printing of multiple views of objects, which provide multiple or variable appearances, such as 3-dimensional objects, in the file.
2. Description of the Related Art
PDF direct printing is a process by which a PDF (Portable Document Format) file is sent directly to a compatible printer device without first using an application or print driver to pre-process the PDF data into a traditional print language such as PDL (Page Description Language). The PDF data is processed by the printer itself and printed. PDF direct printing may be initiated, for example, from a computer connected to the printer, by dragging a PDF file icon to a printer utility icon on the Microsoft® Windows desktop, or by right-clicking the file and choosing the “print” command. It may also be initiated, on a printer that has slots to receive flash or other memory devices, from the printer itself. Some software for managing large printers used in professional print shops also has the ability to initiate PDF direct printing. The Adobe® PDF1.6 specification supports image data for 3-dimensional (3-D) objects, for instance. A 3-D object provides multiple or variable appearances or facades in accordance with the viewing angles by means of user's dragging the object while a PDF file is opened by a PDF viewer application. But when a PDF file containing 3-D object data is printed using PDF direct printing, only one view of the object (i.e. along one viewing angle) is printed. Movie objects also provide multiple appearances or scenes in accordance with lapsed times when it is played back. Existing PDF direct printing software does not print such the objects with a desired view or with different views or multiple views. To print such objects with a desired view or different views, a user is typically required to open the PDF file using an appropriate application such as Adobe® Acrobat®, selects the view(s) (i.e. viewing angle(s)) manually, and print the view(s) manually one at a time. This is often a time-consuming and cumbersome operation.